Majors Issues Relating to Organized Crime: Within the Context of Economic Relationships

• NCJ Number: 192845
• Author(s): Margaret E. Beare; R. T. Naylor
• Date Published: April 1999
• Length: 61 pages
• Sale Source: Law Cmssn of Canada
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: Downloaded January 24, 2002

Annotation

This study explores the stigma of the concept of organized crime.

Abstract

Discussions related to organized crime are steeped in politics. The mention of the words has the power to draw the press, win votes, acquire law enforcement resources, and gain public support for various legislative or enforcement crackdowns. The multiple agendas and hidden constituencies complicate the process of enforcing or assessing the success of an enforcement policy of organized crime, as well as making it impossible to reverse a policy that is not working. Some of the commodities that have become the main sources of revenue for groups typically associated with organized crime relate to morality offenses. The term organized crime may incorporate what might be very diverse types of criminal activity that are responded to with diverse regulatory and/or enforcement strategies. It is the interwoven aspects of organized crime that makes it so difficult to detect and control. Economic regulation and criminal law enforcement have always overlapped. Much of the original stereotype regarding the nature of organized crime has been reinforced by biker gang hype and a preoccupation with drug trafficking to the exclusion of the vast array of other criminal commodities. The theoretical framework to a new paradigm presents the two questions: (1) should the criminal code be used to address all economic crimes; and (2) if the answer is yes--are there valid distinctions between criminals being involved in legitimate businesses and legitimate business persons being involved in crime. A weakness with the more traditional perspective is that it seems to create two distinct classes of criminals in the eyes of the law--a class of career criminals and a class of legitimate citizens who may from time to time err. Economically motivated offenses include predatory crimes such as purse snatching; enterprise crimes involving gambling and recreational drugs; and commercial crimes such as production of illegal goods and services. Although the entire notion of controlling crime by taking away the capital and the motivation is appealing, there is no proof in logic or in practice that it actually works. Bibliography, appendices